[SPOILERS] Star Wars - The Force Awakens / Rogue One

[gratus fermentatio]

One thing that was also weird was Maz. Here's someone who has run a shady establishment 'for a thousand years.' You don't get that level of notoriety for helping the good guys. She seems awfully invested in the good guys, and then sticks around while her place is crumbling around her! No hideout, no crazy escape. A shady tavern owner woulda been outta there so fast.

This is a good point. I kind of liked Maz, though I thought she needed a little more work in the computer modeling/animation studio. As far as the character went, she came across as the wise, gentle, caring, helpful type; which does seem to be a bit odd for a tavern owner. Might be a bit more to this character that will be revealed in the next film. Maybe she's a sort of "Guinan-like" (STNG) character. Or maybe she's far more mercenary & might sell-out the good guys; guess we'll have to wait & see.
Regards, GF.

 

[kombat]

Poe is an interesting character, but the guy playing him just doesn't do anything for me.

If you want to have your mind changed, watch the excellent movie "Ex Machina." Interestingly, the actor who played General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) is also in Ex Machina.

If you still need more motivation, it also features full frontal nudity of Alicia Vikander.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

If you want to have your mind changed, watch the excellent movie "Ex Machina." Interestingly, the actor who played General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) is also in Ex Machina.

If you still need more motivation, it also features full frontal nudity of Alicia Vikander.

Thank you for this info, I've been wondering about Ex Machina for a while now; I'll have to watch it.
Regards, GF.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Thank you for this info, I've been wondering about Ex Machina for a while now; I'll have to watch it.
Regards, GF.

The film is excellent. The girl, too skinny. She is not the only one to show some skin.

 

[Brewenstein]

"How far is it to Chicago?" "About 35 minutes..."

I grew up in rural, central PA. Moved to the Chicago 'burbs for school and met my wife. One night we were going to her brother's house in Aurora and I asked her how far it was. She replied, "About a half hour". I asked again and got the same answer. She looked completely baffled as explained what I meant, and finally took a guess at the mileage. Followed by, "it doesn't really matter, it takes a half hour".

Although after living here for 30 years, time is often times more accurate than distance. And even that needs to be qualified by the time of day (rush hour, weekend, etc.).

 

[Homercidal]

I actually liked the end of TFA. I think it leaves a lot of question marks for the next movie and I dig some of that anticipation.

Carrie Fisher didn't "Age" well is something I have heard a lot about the movie. Well who cares? It's a movie! She is supposed to be old in the movie and she was. That said, I thought the acting was better with the younger cast overall. Harrison Ford was "up to his old tricks" and it didn't look like he was getting any better at it!

I thought they could have done a better job of showing him deciding to slow down and really want to try to reach his son. I think that would have made the death scene more compelling.

I liked the way Luke looked. He looked older and wiser and still conflicted about something. We still don't know his perspectives on things. Is he battling the Dark Side just as Kylo was fighting the light? Is that why he went into seclusion? Is he simply disappearing after not being able to protect his pupils from Kylo Ren? Is he just really embarrassed about his feelings toward his sister?

I just can't wait to see what Rey and Chewie and Luke are going to be up to, and what happens to Finn and the droids. What happens with Kylo Ren? Snoke? (Terrible name, BTW. Snoke. Snoke. Ugh...) How did he get that massive fissure in his skull?? Did Luke do that? Maybe an unsuccessful attempt at his life from a former apprentice?

So many questions!

 

[JonM]

"Snoke" makes me think of the "Snuke" episode of South Park.

 

[Marc77]

While I enjoyed the movie at the end when my brain engaged again (I like to turn it off and just enjoy the movie) I found myself a bit disappointed. It's like they took Episode IV and just remade it.

Person on a desert planet struggling to find out who they really are? Check.
Said person seems find the force easily and doesn't really need to be trained. Check.
Giant death star with only one weakness that everyone seems to find? Check.

There were some other things in there but at the end of the day I ended up disappointed. Here's this storm trooper that was designated as waste management but was wearing a storm trooper outfit and was out on mission with a gun. Seriously?

Said storm trooper just happens to pick up a light saber and finds himself mysteriously good at it instantly. To boot he's fending off a fighter that's been trained with a light saber and has the force. Seriously, use the force to throw Finn down and end him.

Rey has the force and just mysteriously learns to use it despite never being shown how to use it. I, like many others seem to think that Rey is Luke's daughter and I think that we'll find out that Luke had an "oops" and fell in love with someone who was also a Jedi in training (older obviously) and Kylo killed her too. So he went to find the first Jedi temple to control his thoughts and stay in the light.

My only other complaint is that it's been 30 years. Thirty...freakin...years. Everything is the same! I don't know about the rest of the galaxy but after years of war on Earth we've gotten really good at fighting with always new and better weapons. But it's 30 years later and they're still using the same type of weapons, ships and what not.

I did like the addition of being pulled to the light side. It made it the movie more human. No one is truly good or bad for the most part, they just make bad decisions for bad reasons and they can be brought back to be good or change their ways.

Overall, after thinking about it for a while I'm hoping that this movie was just a set up for episode 8 and that it will be a really good movie.

 

[JonM]

Don't forget, most of the movie is on the outskirts of civilization. I bet there are places on Earth that are still using old 1970s weapons (AK-47?) and have no computer access, etc. and haven't progressed a heck of a lot.

And the Finn Ren fight? Ren was wounded, Finn was scared s**tless, and Ren was toying with him like Vader and Luke in Ep. V.

 

[Brettomomyces]

And the Finn Ren fight? Ren was wounded, Finn was scared s**tless, and Ren was toying with him like Vader and Luke in Ep. V.

Speaking of call backs to Vader, did anyone catch that moment when Kylo and Rey were fighting and a tree branch gets saber sliced and swings toward Kylo just like the piece of ducting from the episode V fight between Luke and Vader?

Wow run on sentence...I wish I could get a screen shot of it but I swear it was like 3 seconds of choreography that was almost exactly the same.

 

[Homercidal]

And FWIW I didn't think either Rey nor Finn was really very good with their lightsabers. Finn lost, and the fact that Rey beat Kylo Ren could be attributed to the fact that he was seriously injured and probably in some kind of mental shock over her abilities. Plus, she has the calming and focusing ability of the light side in her favor.

I mean, obviously it's a raw talent for her, but throughout the realms of fantasy stories the heroes are pretty much all very talented and noticed being able to do things better than the average. Except Luke. He was just good at whining before he got training.

 

[JonM]

Plus, Rey beat the crap out of two bad guys at once earlier. I don't think her holding her own against a wounded fighter is a stretch at all.

 

[agrazela]

...Giant death star with only one weakness that everyone seems to find? Check...

At least this time people had to physically infiltrate to exploit (bomb) the weakness. I liked that.

...Here's this storm trooper that was designated as waste management but was wearing a storm trooper outfit and was out on mission with a gun. Seriously?

I wasn't clear on whether he was a sanitation engineer AS a stormtrooper, or was that his job BEFORE becoming a soldier? Or are all these stormtroopers both fight-trained AND given specialist training?

Said storm trooper just happens to pick up a light saber and finds himself mysteriously good at it instantly.

Best theory I've heard on this (and I might have read it here, IDK) is that, as suggested in the fight scene between Finn and the trooper with that switch-blade electric riot baton thingy, maybe all stromtroopers are trained in hand-to-hand / melee weapons? Besides, he really wasn't that good with it as I recall.

My only other complaint is that it's been 30 years. Thirty...freakin...years. Everything is the same! I don't know about the rest of the galaxy but after years of war on Earth we've gotten really good at fighting with always new and better weapons. But it's 30 years later and they're still using the same type of weapons, ships and what not.

Oh I dunno, our own military likes to find a weapon--whether an M-1 or M-16 rifle, or an F-15 fighter--and stick with it for 30-50 years. Plus the troopers had some new weapons (that riot control baton, flamethrowers), I seem to recall more variants of the TIE fighters, and maybe this explains why Poe's X-wing can maneuver so well, it's the X-wing Mark 2!

And Death Star 3? It's weapon could jack a whole system in one shot right? Death Stars 1 and 2 would have to circle countless 80's-era vector-rendered planets before they could do that.

Plus they have guns that shoot frickin' lasers! How ya gonna improve on that for arming your soldiers!

I will say this, Ren stopping that blaster shot with the raw force...instead of deflecting it with his saber like he was playing badminton...was really, really cool.

 

[Pappers_]

Plus they have guns that shoot frickin' lasers!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh7bYNAHXxw[/ame]

 

[iijakii]

Yeah, not a stretch to assume the troopers have duties to perform.

 

[JonM]

There's a companion book that just came out, and it explains a little more about Finn, Rey, and Poe's backgrounds. It apparently explains Finn's sanitation job and his other training. Doesn't tell us who Rey's parents are or why she's on Jakku, though.

 

[Pappers_]

 

[bob1852]

I really liked the believability of the light saber fights.

I was so excited when they touted that III was going to have the most epic light saber battle in history. Two guys floating on chunks of something in a lava river that was 99.9% CGI was not epic. Well, maybe epically lame.

 

[kombat]

Said storm trooper just happens to pick up a light saber and finds himself mysteriously good at it instantly.

I think they explained that well, actually. The first time Finn picks up the light saber, it's to fight another Storm Trooper wielding some sort of electrified-baton weapon, not entirely unlike a light saber. I saw that as them demonstrating that Storm Troopers are routinely given weapons training in weapons similar to light sabers, to make it easier to accept that Finn would be proficient with the light saber.

 

[JonM]

I really liked the believability of the light saber fights.

I was so excited when they touted that III was going to have the most epic light saber battle in history. Two guys floating on chunks of something in a lava river that was 99.9% CGI was not epic. Well, maybe epically lame.

I watched Ep. IV (original theatrical release, thankyouverymuch) a couple days before seeing Ep. VII. Something occurred to me: imagine seeing that movie for the first time in 1977. Before the Obi Wan/Vader duel, we have seen a light saber on exactly three occasions - two are Obi Wan basically explaining what it is and how it works, the other is when Kenobi kicks some ass in the Cantina. He goes from cool and calm as can be to all action in the blink of an eye. He pulls out the light saber, and in about two seconds, he has sliced one bad Guy's gun in half, and taken the other bad Guy's arm off. Then he stands there, cool as can be, looking off any other takers.

At that point, the light saber is the coolest ^%#ing thing we've ever seen.

Then Obi Wan is sneaking around the Death Star. He senses something is up. He pulls out the light saber, so we know something awesome is going to happen. He walks around the corner and HOLY &%#!!! DARTH VADER HAS ONE TOO!!! AND IT'S RED!!!!!!!

The we see the first ever light saber duel. We hear for the first time ever the sound of two sabers colliding.

That is what makes that fight so much cooler and so much more exciting than the 45-minute CGI clustercluck in Ep. III.



And it's the same people.

 

[Homercidal]

Sorry to interrupt the Topic at Hand, but since we are all basically SW nerds at heart, I'm wondering if anyone has a digital copy of the ORIGINAL ROTJ Soundtrack? Not the "remastered" version where they took out the awesome "Yub Nub" Ewok song and replaced it with some instrumental. I want the Ewok celebration that transitions into the Finale. All I can find online is the new version, which doesn't compare IMO.

I HAVE the record, but I don't actually have a record player to play it on.

 

[kombat]

Sorry to interrupt the Topic at Hand, but since we are all basically SW nerds at heart, I'm wondering if anyone has a digital copy of the ORIGINAL ROTJ Soundtrack? Not the "remastered" version where they took out the awesome "Yub Nub" Ewok song and replaced it with some instrumental. I want the Ewok celebration that transitions into the Finale. All I can find online is the new version, which doesn't compare IMO.

I HAVE the record, but I don't actually have a record player to play it on.

I know exactly what you mean, and yes, as a kid, I definitely had that album on vinyl. But it's somewhere in my parents' attic or basement, 1,400 km from where I am now, and even if I had it, I have no way of transferring it from vinyl to digital. If you find a copy, I'd be interested.

 

[drainbamage]

Sorry to interrupt the Topic at Hand, but since we are all basically SW nerds at heart, I'm wondering if anyone has a digital copy of the ORIGINAL ROTJ Soundtrack? Not the "remastered" version where they took out the awesome "Yub Nub" Ewok song and replaced it with some instrumental. I want the Ewok celebration that transitions into the Finale. All I can find online is the new version, which doesn't compare IMO.

I HAVE the record, but I don't actually have a record player to play it on.

I thought admitting to liking anything about the Ewoks was to immediately flag oneself as not a true Star Wars fan.

(Incidentally, the Auto-Correct on my phone recognizes "Ewoks". I learned something today.)

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I thought admitting to liking anything about the Ewoks was to immediately flag oneself as not a true Star Wars fan.

(Incidentally, the Auto-Correct on my phone recognizes "Ewoks". I learned something today.)

Meh. In retrospect the Ewoks and Jar Jar were the worst characters in the series. But when the movies were released I thought they were awesome.

However, I was never a big enough StarWars nerd to have soundtrack.

I do have the original on Laser disc tho'. Does that count?

 

[JonM]

When I was 9, I thought the Ewoks were great. Now I understand how silly they were (should have been Wookies or Bothans helping) but I can't bring myself to hate them.

 

[hezagenius]

Sorry to interrupt the Topic at Hand, but since we are all basically SW nerds at heart, I'm wondering if anyone has a digital copy of the ORIGINAL ROTJ Soundtrack? Not the "remastered" version where they took out the awesome "Yub Nub" Ewok song and replaced it with some instrumental. I want the Ewok celebration that transitions into the Finale. All I can find online is the new version, which doesn't compare IMO.

I HAVE the record, but I don't actually have a record player to play it on.

When did they replace that song on the soundtrack? I have the 1997 2-CD set with the laser etched CDs. Pretty cool. Lots of extra stuff on there. I can't recall if that song is on there.

I did watch ROTJ with my kids last weekend before I took them to TFA and was really flabbergasted with the changes that have been made. I was watching the blu-ray release from a few years back. Seems like there have been even more changes since the special editions from like 15 years ago. The band playing in Jabba's palace was horrible. And the ending with the Yub Nub song was removed. I was looking forward to that. I remember singing that song in a school chorus in like 1985. I still remember most of the words. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

 

[JonM]

I tried. I had to turn it off at the stupid, stupid palace band scene. It was unwatchable.

I'll stick with the original theatrical releases.

 

[drainbamage]

Meh. In retrospect the Ewoks and Jar Jar were the worst characters in the series. But when the movies were released I thought they were awesome.

I keed, I keed. The Ewoks don't bother me either way, but considering the way fans (myself included) reacted to Jar Jar, I'm not surprised at the backlash.

When did they replace that song on the soundtrack? I have the 1997 2-CD set with the laser etched CDs. Pretty cool. Lots of extra stuff on there. I can't recall if that song is on there.

It was changed on the 1997 re-release, when they changed the ending to show the different planets celebrating the fall of the Empire.

 

[JonM]

And even though we JUST SAW Sebastian Shaw as the face of Darth Vader, I hear they replaced Shaw with Hayden Christensen when Luke sees the Force ghosts at the end.

 

[m00ps]

I foresee this thread slowly turning into just B%^&*ing about the changes theyve made over the years to the original trilogy, and then (a few years later) being resurrected due to hype about whatever the next entry will be called. Then there will be a new thread that will go through the exact same cycle

side note: I thought the movie was cool